Monday, September 19, 2005

Calderon "feels like a winner"

At an impromptu news conference (that, not incidentally, was covered in the leftist La Jornada), Calderon said he already felt that he had won the PAN nomination and was looking toward the elections in 2006.

He said that Creel's problems had to do with his strategists and that Cardenas Jimenez sought to divide, rather than unite, PANistas.

When asked about whether there was a place for Elba Esther in the PAN if she is expelled from the PRI (see related story about procedures to expel La Maestra), Calderon said he didn't think La Maestra was looking for another party and that he wanted to "dialogar con los maestros de México, encontrar las diferencias y resolverlas por el bienestar de la educación nacional."

This is fairly consistent with the PAN's strategy toward teachers in general; try to talk directly to teachers without engaging the union. Such a strategy seems more feasible in the post-2000 world, where the teachers' union, too is being pulled this way and that by political alliances with the PRI and the PRD at different levels of organization.